February 6, 1778, the United States enters into a formal alliance with France

On this day in 1778, the United States, fighting a war of independence against Britain, entered into a formal alliance with France.

The pact, negotiated for the Americans chiefly by Benjamin Franklin, included a key clause: “The two contracting parties shall each on its own part, and in the manner it may judge most proper, make all the efforts in its power, against their common enemy, in order to attain the end proposed.”

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Formally known as The Treaty of Amity and Commerce, it recognized the United States as an independent nation and promoted trade between the partners. It also stipulated that France and the United States would have to agree on any peace agreement with the British.

In 1776, the Continental Congress had sent Franklin, Silas Deane and Arthur Lee to Paris, to secure an alliance with France. The American victory over the British in the Battle of Saratoga convinced the French that the Americans stood a good chance of eventually winning. As the war progressed, the French contributed 12,000 troops and 32,000 sailors to help defeat the British.

The marquis de Lafayette, a French aristocrat, played an important role in the war effort. On arriving in Philadelphia in July 1777, Lafayette offered his services to the Continental Army. He served as a major general in the Continental forces, forging a lifelong friendship with George Washington.

After the U.S. victory, however, the alliance soured. When Britain and France resumed hostilities in 1793, President Washington declared that the U.S. would remain neutral. Relations between France and the United States worsened after John Jay went to London to sign a treaty with the British in 1795. By then, the U.S-France alliance was all but defunct.